Texas Rangers Blog

Texas Rangers' Yu Darvish of Japan looks skyward as he walks off the field in the ninth inning of a baseball game against the Boston Red Sox, Friday, May 9, 2014, in Arlington, Texas. Darvish took a no-hit bid into 8 and 2/3 giving up a single to David Ortiz in the 8-0 Rangers win. (AP Photo/Tony Gutierrez)

ARLINGTON — Three more brushes with no-hitters, and Texas Rangers right-hander Yu Darvish will match Hall of Famer Nolan Ryan.

Darvish on Friday night came within one out of a no-hitter for the second time in his career. Darvish’s tongue-in-cheek reaction was “I’ll just keep doing what I’m doing, and I’ll probably have a world record of ‘almost a no-hitter.’“

There is no specific record, but Ryan is the all-time leader for no-hitters lost in the ninth inning with five, including two while with the Rangers in 1989. Ryan had a record seven no-hitters.

“When you get that close, it makes you aware that you haven’t accomplished getting all 27 outs,” Ryan said on Saturday in a telephone conversation. “It’s part of baseball. What happened didn’t bother me.”

Ryan said Darvish’s chances of getting a no-hitter hinge on his ability to be more economical with his pitch count.

Darvish has cut his pitches-per-inning average to 15.9, but he has not had a complete game in 68 career starts. He had 113 pitches through eight innings against the Red Sox and was fatigued in the ninth according to David Ortiz, who got the two-out hit.

“One of the big things for Yu to do to throw a no-hitter is cut back on the number of pitches he throws early in a game,” Ryan said. “Because of the pitch limit on him, he’s not accustomed to going 125 [pitches]. When he throws a lot of pitches early in the game, for him to close it out, he’s going to be looking at those kind of numbers.”

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